Saad Eddin Ibrahim

Saad Eddin Ibrahim "is a leading Egyptian pro-democracy activist and a sociologist who holds dual Egyptian and American citizenship. In 1988, he founded the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies at the American University of Cairo, creating one of the few independent research institutions in the Arab world.

"Dr. Ibrahim was arrested in Cairo on June 30, 2000, shortly after he published a sarcastic critique of the possibility that Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, would seek to install his son Gamal as his successor. He and two dozen of his staff members were rounded up and charged in state security court. Dr. Ibrahim was convicted of taking outside funds without permission, disseminating information harmful to Egypt's interests, and defrauding the European Union (which had contributed funding to the Ibn Khaldun Center). The guilty verdict was handed down even before the defense had a chance to finish its case, and the court sentenced Dr. Ibrahim to seven years of hard labor. In 2003, Egypt's highest appeals court issued a sudden reversal and found him innocent of all charges.

"The case received unprecedented attention in the West, especially in the United States. American diplomats did not miss a single of Dr. IbrahimÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s court sessions, and the Bush administration froze a supplemental aid package for Egypt until Dr. Ibrahim's release.

"During his imprisonment, Dr. Ibrahim experienced a series of strokes, and he underwent surgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center upon his release.

"Dr. Ibrahim has reopened the Ibn Khaldun Centre for Development Studies, which was closed during the two and a half years of his arrest. He found the center looted, his files pillaged, and even sinks, telephones and furniture destroyed or damaged.

"Ibrahim has described himself as being "color blind" when it comes to being able to identify the "red lines" that if crossed, will incur official wrath. "I am not going to change my convictions because of a trial" says Dr. Ibrahim. "If there is a margin of freedom in which you can fight, we are determined to take that margin and expand it" he says.

"Professor Ibrahim is represented exclusively by Ms Benador from Benador Associates."

In 2003 he received the Committee on Human Rights of Scientists' Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award.

"Freedom House honored jailed Egyptian human rights activist Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim in a ceremony Monday, October 21, 2002. Dr. Ibrahim's wife Barbara Ibrahim accepted for her husband the first Bette Bao Lord Award for Writing on Freedom. The ceremony took place in Freedom House's Washington DC office." 

Currently

 * Professor of Political Sociology at he American University in Cairo
 * Secretary General of the Egyptian Independent Commission for Electoral Review (ICER)
 * President of Cairo’s Union Social Professions
 * Trustee of the Arab Thought Forum (Amman, Jordan)
 * Trustee, Arab Democracy Foundation
 * Member of the Club of Rome (Paris)
 * Chairman of the Board of the Ibn Khaldoum Center for development Studies
 * Founder and Core Member of the Initiative for Peace and Cooperation in the Middle East
 * Member of the World Bank’s Advisory Council for Environmentally Sustainable Development (Washington DC)
 * Member of the Board of Minority Rights Group International (London)
 * Middle East International Forum (Terra media)
 * Transparency International’s Council on Governance
 * International Bureau for Children Rights Board of Directors
 * Chairman of the Board of Egyptian Enlightenment Association
 * The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS, UK)
 * Associate editor of International Sociology (the journal of the International Sociological Association)
 * President of the Egyptian Sociologists Association
 * International Advisory Board, Journal of Democracy
 * Advisory Board, Project on Middle East Democracy
 * Director, Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy
 * Advisor, Cyber Dissidents
 * Advisory Board, Global Political Trends Center

Formerly
Source
 * Taught at Cairo University, the American University of Beirut, Indiana6prudu University, De Pauw University, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Washington
 * Director of the Center for Arab Unity Studies in Cairo
 * Founder and Secretary-General of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (Cairo)
 * Founder and Secretary-General of the Arab Council of Childhood and Development
 * Master Juror of the Agha Khan Award of Islamic Architecture (Geneva)
 * President of Al-Sabbah Publishing House
 * Board member and Head of Arab Affairs of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategies Studies


 * Director, Rights & Democracy


 * 2002 Honoree, Human Rights First: Human Rights Awards Dinner
 * Scholar/Advisor, International Freedom Center
 * Trustee, Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies
 * Director, American Islamic Congress